Il ruolo del GAL nello sviluppo turistico territoriale: studio e proposta per il Montefeltro

Over the course of the last few years, the touristic destination Italy has seen a loss of competitiveness and attractiveness due to growing international competition; this is viewed as symptomatic of the fact that space barriers no longer suffice to guarantee local tourism development. In order to compete in this context, touristic destinations need to undertake new organizational and managerial paths; this is especially true for Italy which, on the one hand has high potential in terms of attractiveness factors but, on the other hand, presents a supply system that is highly fragmented among small and medium-sized enterprises, making coordination very difficult. Starting the Vital Sistemic Approach (Golinelli GM, 2000; Golinelli CM, 2002) and keeping in mind that the territories, especially the rural ones, are called to work within local tourist systems, the study aims to answer two main research questions: A. What role can the LAG in tourism development of the inland areas? B. What management tools you can take to make the most of the sub-regional tourist destinations such as the GAL? Within the text (of a policy statement) not only must the core function of the Mandator - represented by the European Union (EU) through the “regional policy” program - be highlighted, but the roles of the Coordinator and the Proposer - capable of communicating and acting within the strategic orientation of the macroenvironment – must also be defined. With the reform of Title V of the Italian Constitution, the Regions are now identified as the Coordinators of tourism activity planning, whereas with the abolition of the Local Tourism Systems (LTS), which brought about a weakening of the organizational framework, a new Proposer must now be identified. In our opinion, this role could be fulfilled by Local Action Groups (GAL) in those areas that fall under their jurisdiction. This could help redefine a hierarchical level of destination Marche that would be useful in implementing a planned tourism strategy at the regional level. After an analysis of the territorial touristic context of the Marche region, this doctoral thesis proposes a possible Marketing Plan for the territory of the Montefeltro GAL, a regional touristic subsystem. The marketing plan was devised following the guidelines already traced by the regional planning board as well as the studies and documentation produced by the various territorial levels including, among others, the tourism plan of the province of Pesaro and Urbino.